Foldable soft tops for SUV vehicles are known in the art. These tops provide a vehicle with an open air experience with the top folded back or provide protection from the elements with the top folded forward. Such tops are typically manually retractable and during retraction the operator has to perform a series of manipulation of the top. Additionally, manual management and stowage of the fabric materials of the top during folding must be accomplished.
Thus, in order for a vehicle operator to facilitate opening of the soft top in order to provide the open air vehicle feeling the operator must be outside the vehicle to manipulate the soft top. Therefore, in recent years a soft top “sunroof” has become a well-received option for folding SUV soft tops. This “sunroof” typically folds back from within the vehicle such that the operator can readily provide an open air experience without folding back the entire soft top. An example of such a soft top is the Sunrider™ soft top by Bestop, the assignee herein which provides a front “sunroof” portion of the top which folds back for revealing an open air sunroof feeling for the vehicle.
While this sunroof option has become a very desirable feature, it does require considerable force at the start of the deployment due to the operator's angle of attack. The mass of the frame mechanism for folding the top cover fabric and fabric becoming trapped in the frame mechanism linkage are additional concerns. Also, fabric management is occasionally problematic in that the fabric can become entangled or interfere with the frame mechanism of the top.
Another problem is that current systems do not latch the soft tops in the open position at all and/or do not quickly and effectively lock the soft tops in the open sunroof position.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art to provide a sunroof deployment mechanism that provides easier opening and improved fabric management in combination with a lift assist that locks the soft top in the open position and also allows the soft top to be rotated into a stowed position and held in the stowed position and/or selectively removed from the vehicle.